Tuesday, 31 January 2017

712 cross the vertical line at the inaugural Climb to Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, January 30, 2017 – (ME NewsWire) - Under the initiative of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, The Climb to Abu Dhabi Vertical Marathon presented by Daman’s ActiveLife was held at the iconic Etihad Towers on Friday the 27th of January 2017. A total of 712 participants took up the challenge across 6 different race categories climbing 82 Floors / 1,617 Steps or 32 Floors / 720 Steps with winners taking home $25,000 USD in prize money.

Speaking at the event H.E Aref Hamad Al Awani, Secretary General of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, commented, “Stair climbing is one of the best forms of exercise and the easiest way to work fitness into our busy lives. We are delighted with the inaugural event and encourage everyone to join the stair climbing movement not just from today but into the future.”

Brand Ambassador of the event and current World Champion, Piotr Lobodzinski expressed his delight at the engagement of the community and worlds best runners, he stated “The Climb to Abu Dhabi was a very new race for many of today’s participants. Its fantastic to see such a great response which hopefully sees the sport of tower running become even more popular in the Middle East Region.”

Christian Riedl winner of the men’s elites category, and current world number 2 ranked tower runner expressed his delight at crossing the vertical line in the ultimate winning time of 9mins and 21seconds. He stated “I am very happy to win the event, obviously with such prize money on stake we had a strong field so to hear my name announced as the winner was a great feeling. The race itself was considerably difficult with a fast track approaching the stairs but overall a fantastic event and look forward to defending my title next year already.”

Australia’s world champion Suzy Walsham whom took home the Female Elite title in an impressive 10mins and 30seconds was also delighted with her performance, stating “what a wonderful event to see so many of the community take part in tower running. Today’s event was a good test as it was a building that no one has ever run up. Delighted to take home the title and look forward to seeing many more of the Abu Dhabi community take on the challenge next year.”

Richard Foulds, Head of Property Management at Etihad Towers; the home of the Climb to Abu Dhabi, stated “on behalf of His Highness Sheikh Suroor Bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, it was a pleasure for the 2017 “Climb to Abu Dhabi Vertical Marathon” to be hosted at the iconic Etihad Towers in conjunction with Abu Dhabi’s sports council, Daman Health Insurance and of course our hotel partners Jumeirah Group.

Tower 2, where this year’s event took place, is one of three residential towers, measuring 310m in height and remains one of the tallest iconic residential towers in Abu Dhabi. The event also happily coincides with the 5th anniversary of the opening of Etihad Towers, which remains the largest mixed use development in Abu Dhabi. It was a pleasure for Etihad Towers for Real Estate (ETRE) to award Ms. Alice McNamara, who flew in all the way from Sydney Australia, the trophy and prize money for coming runner up in the female elite category

On behalf of His Highness Sheikh Suroor and the Etihad Towers team, we would like to thank all the supporters and participants both professional athletes and family & friends and welcome them back to Etihad Towers Abu Dhabi for next year’s edition.

An exhibition race in 2017 under the sanctioning of the World Tower Running Association, the Climb to Abu Dhabi is also the first destination city for the newly formed Climb to Vertical Series, which will see cities around the Middle East & North Africa form part of the a MENA vertical series to launch in 2018.

An initiative of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council and presented by Daman’s ActiveLife, the Climb to Abu Dhabi is hosted and sponsored by Etihad Towers and supported by Reebok, Etisalat, Technogym, National Ambulance, Jumeirah at Etihad Towers and Sport360.